Who you calling dumb? Neanderthals possibly cave artists: study

June 14, 2012|Sharon Begley | Reuters

The crux of the who-were-the-artists controversy therefore comes down to this: were Neanderthals the only humans in Europe when the cave art was made?

ZilhÃ£o believes the most solid evidence dates the arrival of modern humans to 40,500 years ago. If the cave art is at minimum 40,800 years old - and probably centuries if not millennia older - "that is enough to place the paintings in a time period when there were no modern humans in Europe," said ZilhÃ£o. "It cannot be proven at this time, but that's my gut feeling."

Others disagree. "The oldest Homo sapiens in Europe may date from 45,000 to 42,000 years ago," retorted Delson in an interview with Reuters. He said a 2011 study found fossils of that age in England and Italy. "There is no need to hypothesize that Neanderthals created these paintings."

That 2011 claim, too, is controversial, however. Critics argue that the fossils are actually Neanderthals. Last month in Science, ZilhÃ£o accused rivals of being "on a mission from God to put modern humans in Europe early enough" to be the creators of ancient art and other artifacts, "putting Neanderthals back where they â??deserve' to be."

For laypeople who don't care about the academic sniping, the possibility that the hand stencils and other cave paintings were made by long-gone Neanderthals offers a certain thrill. It means, said Pike, "that anyone can walk into El Castillo and see a Neanderthal hand on the wall."